h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Say hi to KL and everyone for me!

Hope to catch up soon - not sure if I will be here tomorrow afternoon / evening or not yet

Gosho

The concept of the strong 50:

Hurtling through the narrow lanes of merrie England with LHG driving her German tank, she comments that she likes to drive at a strong 50. I notice the speedo says something more like 65, and say, "yes, so strong it begins with a whole different number!"

My dream car would get very high gas mileage,
be able to drive easily at 70 miles an hour,
have on-demand four wheel drive, and have an
automatic transmission. I used to have such a
car: a Subaru Justy. It was so perfect, they stopped
making the model. After nine years of driving it,
I settled for a neew Ford Escort.

The day will come when the gas-guzzlers will
be laughed off the roads.

I doubt laughing will get them off the roads.


Maybe excessively high gas prices would do it. Or extra taxes on them might help some.

since I'm sure the Auto makers know that gasoline comes from
Oil fields in Kuwait and Saudia Arabia and Iraq you would think they
would be advertizing cars with better gas milage. Instead it is sports cars or SUV's. Is that stupid or what

Seeing as how the ads are produced many, many months in advance, likely they don't have ads on hand for the economy models. Shouldn't keep them from pulling the SUV ads though.

I can't see them doing that except in the direst circumstances - it's the American way to be bigger, better, faster, heavier, than yesterday and than everyone else, regardless. Chris put it well in an episode of Northern Exposure:

"Here's to us, the American Nation - 2% of the world's population, we consume 25% of its resources and produce 20% of its pollution."

A very complex character, Chris. I think he was my favourite... or maybe Ed Chigliak. I could never decide.

I was thinking in terms of as gas prices continue to rise, people will begin thinking more economically, (I hope, anyway) and we will see fewer SUV ads.


But then again, I could just be dreaming.

Well we have high fuel prices here and car advertising is not that difficult

I would also like to point out that strong 50 is only ever attempted on a long straight empty road (all be it without the professionally trained driver)

The definition of 'long straight' being, that piece of road up to the corner that you are fast approaching

*Hopes we don't have to do too much driving when Mrs Gosho and I eventually make it to Oxfordshire*

Just when you think...

The latest ad for a company which makes SUVs (it's the one that rhymes with ) shows someone driving over snow. They stop in the middle of nowhere and walk, carrying a long pole with a metal hook kind of thing on the end, toward a baby seal. There's a shot of them raising the pole above the seal, rather like that famous shot from the sixties of someone about to club a bay seal to death, but of course the pole is shoved through the ice, and the mother seal miraculously pops her head up. Aaaaah.

And the tagline?

"Conquer nature, as well as save it."

Message?

Our cars don't mess up the environment, they help little fluffy animals.

Oh puh-lease

Not only that, but *their* SUV is apparently so lightweight that it doesn't sink down in the snow, I take it...

Which would imply exceptionally good gas mileage, right?

Yeah right

I heard a piece on All Things Considered a few days ago about whether SUVs really are better in snow. The conclusion was that they probably were, because of the four wheel drive and the extra clearance, but that the drivers weren't experienced enough to know how to deal with the conditions. With regular two wheel drive, the wheels start to spin on snow, so you ease up a bit on the gas and take it easy. SUVs give their drivers a false sense of security, so they drive them too hard in adverse conditions which is why you see so many of them in snow-filled ditches at the side of the road.

So, no surprise there then

Ah snow...


We certainly could have used a 4-wheel drive vehicle the other day. Not that I would want it to end up upside down in a snowbank, of course.

The latest installment:

In an ad for a regular four door family car, nothing special, not a performance or sports car...

"... and an impressive 29 miles per gallon"

29 mpg is not that bad.

The SUV's get advertised so heavily because the
companies that make them get a good profit margin
for them. I doubt that the little old lady who
only drives her SUV once a week (to church) is
contributing much to global pollution, unless her
church is 200 miles away.

The 2000 census reported that 80% of America's drivers
are alone in their cars when they drive. Thus, a car
that gets 100 MPG on single-occupant trips would be
more likely to conserve limited gasoline than one that
could hold more people comfortably.

I don't know what effect increased public transportation
would have. A bus with only 6 passengers is probably
not more fuel-efficient than a mini-car that gets
50 MPG but only carries the driver.

When the Metro was introduced in the early 70s, I think it was hailed as being able to get well over 50mpg, and fuel efficiency has increased even more since then. I don't think that 29mpg for an ordinary family saloon is anything to be awfully proud of

And those are all valid points Paul. Quite so about the little old lady. If she needs an SUV because of the terrain, fair enough. But the chances are that she'll be driving over ordinary roads.

In complete agreement with you about the !00mpg car

A bus with only four passengers and a driver will certainly be less fuel-efficient than two cars each carrying two passengers, which is why public transport needs more investment so that it becomes possible for more people to use it - greater frequency of service and more routes going to the places they need to go.

I think the reason there's so many SUVs in snowy ditches is because people assume that because of the 4WD, they'll stop nicely... Hardly! SUVs are heavy, and take longer to stop! Sheesh, people, I don't even drive and I know this!

Granted, it had to be pointed out to me...